PANGAEA Open Data Collection

The PANGAEA open data collection archives and publishes earth science datasets. It enables re-use of data and offers interested people to upload their datasets too. Some of its existing open datasets can be considered as big data. By being a member of the World Data System (WDS) of the International Council for Science (ICSU) it represents a data collection one can trust in terms of quality. Metadata is available such as the dataset authors, geolocation, measurement devices, projects, and campaigns. Each dataset can be clearly cited by using the assigned digital object identifier (DOI).

PANGAEA Dataset Overview

The topics of the datasets cover a wide spectrum in the field of earth sciences in different types such as time series of measurements. The topic OCEANS offers around 94000 datasets reaching from cold-water coral to glacial datasets.

In the topic LITHOSPHERE approximately 34000 datasets can be found that are as diverse as air temperature measurements to plants. The LITHOSPHERE is the crust and upper-most solid mantle of the earth. These two parts of the earth behave elastically on time scales of thousands of years. The crust is defined by its chemistry and mineralogy.

Topic BIOLOGICAL CLASSIFICATION offers roughly 27000 datasets that include Phytoplankton compositions, Oxygen and carbon isotopic values of certain elements, and many other data often obtained also from icebreaker cruises of POLARSTERN.

Another interesting area is topic PALEONTOLOGY that includes around 21000 datasets. Data is available about the chemical composition of land fossils and other geochemestry measurements. Paleontology is a topic between biology and geology and differs from archaeology in that it excludes the study of humans. Instead it includes the study of fossils in order to determine the evolution and interactions of organisms in diverse Environments.

The data collection consists of much more further topics such as ATMOSPHERE (roughly 21000 open datasets), ECOLOGY (roughly 12000 open datasets), BIOSPHERE (roughly 5800 open datasets), LAND SURFACE (roughly 4900 open datasets), CHEMISTRY (roughly 3100 open datasets), LAKES AND RIVERS (roughly 2600 open datasets), GEOPHYSICS (roughly 2300 open datasets), CRYOSPHERE (roughly 1100 open datasets), HUMAN DIMENSIONS (roughly 350 open datasets), FISHERIES (roughly 190 open datasets), and finally AGRICULTURE (roughly 70 open datasets).

More Information about a PANGAEA

Please refer to the following short video about the topic:

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